


The Thirteenth Step

by kittymcphee



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Angel Dust Being Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Drugs, F/F, F/M, Found Family, Hurt Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Multi, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Poor Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), References to Drugs, This is going to be long, Valentino Being a Jerk (Hazbin Hotel), just covering my bases
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:01:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26096044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittymcphee/pseuds/kittymcphee
Summary: Angel Dust fell into hell as Anthony. Before he worked for Valentino he spent several years working under Beatrix - a powerful native of hell who controls various farms in hell and sells drugs to the overlords of Pentagram City. Angel met Cherri through his work with Beatrix. He did well enough that Beatrix kept him around long enough for Angel to meet Valentino. This story follows Angel through his time in hell and goes into some of the headcanons I have for how things in hell are produced and what lies outside of Pentagram City. It then will feature a series of chapters about Angel's time working under Valentino and the things that he has learned about the hierarchy in hell. It will then follow Angel into the hotel and the rocky road that is recovery. Let's just say Angel has tried to sober up more than once in hell and is all too familiar with relapse.
Relationships: Angel Dust & Cherri Bomb (Hazbin Hotel), Angel Dust/Husk (Hazbin Hotel), Angel Dust/Valentino (Hazbin Hotel), Blitzo/Stolas (Helluva Boss), Charlie Magne/Vaggie, Lilith Magne/Lucifer Magne, OC/OC, Valentino & Vox (Hazbin Hotel), Valentino/OC, Valentino/Velvet/Vox (Hazbin Hotel), Valentino/Vox (Hazbin Hotel)
Kudos: 23





	The Thirteenth Step

**Author's Note:**

> I have written the first chapter and planned out parts of this fan fic so the updates will likely be sporadic. Let me know if you like it or if you have any questions or criticisms! The first chapter is a bit dry but I wanted to write about what the fall to hell is like.

New souls are the ones who fare worst in hell. Anthony wasn’t much of an exception. He, like many other hell bound souls before him, woke up in one of the filthy streets of Pentagram City. Waking up from his last dose in a strange, red world made him think he had just overdone it again and that he wasn’t sobering up. Except for the fact that he didn’t feel high. He just felt like a truck had ran over him. Not to mention that the red sky was far from the only problem with his current environment. He seemed to be in a dirty street in the back alley of some city. A dirty street that he didn’t recognize.

  
 _Now how da fuck did I get here?_ He didn’t feel quite up to standing so he lifted his head to look around. His first real thought in hell was punctuated by the sight of a strange creature carrying what appeared to be grocery bags on the other end of the street. It appeared to be some sort of giant lizard wearing strange clothes and walking on its hind legs the way a person would. It had on jeans and some kind of shirt. It looked at him, rolled its eyes, and continued walking. Anthony just stared for a few seconds. He could feel his heart rate increase and sheer panic rise in his chest. Had he fried his brain so badly that he was losing it? That didn’t make sense either though. This felt real.

  
At that point Anthony let his head fall back down and he closed his eyes for a few minutes. He seemed to be on a sidewalk and both the street and the area surrounding it seemed empty enough that he could lie there for a moment. He managed to stop himself from hyperventilating by counting to 60 and then repeating a little rhyme to himself from some song or other. He opened his eyes and found that the situation was still the same. The last thing he could remember was taking a huge dose, or rather huge doses of PCP, and then feeling really sick and then….and then…

  
He tried to remember something else about himself but couldn’t bring up much more than hazy images of his life. He coughed and felt the force of his impact throughout his body. As he tried to get up he realized that his limbs felt wrong. The first clue was the disconcerting realization that as he tried to push himself up he seemed to have an extra set of arms; arms that were getting in the way of each other as he figured out how to use them. This caused him to finally look down and properly observe his aching body.

  
Although he would never admit it to anyone, he screamed when he saw what he had become. His elongated limbs looked ridiculous poking out of a vague approximation of the suit he had died in. Well, what was left of the suit. All he had on was the undone button up and the stained and rumpled pants. His body was long and lanky, covered in a soft white fur with pink patterns on it. His knees were all wrong and his feet were inside a strangely shaped pair of shoes. Anthony gingerly removed his shoes to look at the appendages because his shoes were not shaped the way they would be if he had human feet. What he saw made him immediately put his footwear back on as a wave of nausea rolled over him.

  
At this point Anthony leaned over and vomited. Given that there was nothing in his stomach it was more of a dry heave and some bile. He found it weirdly comforting that he could still puke. That felt more human than anything else in that moment.  
He was trying not to dissolve into hysteria and so he decided he would get up and try to figure out what the fuck was going on with this place. Some part of him kept hoping that it was just some horrible nightmare or a protracted drug-induced hallucination. Deep down he could feel how wrong those explanations were. Deep down under the memory of his last hit and the sickness was the darkness and the…falling…

  
He had managed to get himself onto his knees when the memory of falling barreled into him at full force. He was laying on the dirty floor of someone’s bedroom. The room was spinning around him and he felt disgustingly feverish and shaky but he couldn’t be bothered to get up and get water. For the past few hours he had been enjoying watching the room melt around him into a swirl of rainbow and noise. He usually smoked the stuff on a joint – dripping some dissolved angel dust on the marijuana before lighting it up. This time he had decided to snort it before shooting up and he had just kept going. Every time he felt any kind of comedown he railed another dose. He remembered think that he should leave because being passed out near a john was inviting trouble. He’d apparently gotten partway dressed and put on his shoes before laying back down on the floor after taking two more hits to keep the party going on the way home.

  
Before that night he knew his addiction was going places completely outside of his control. He’d been making money in seedy back alleys and discreet gentleman’s bars to fund his using for a few years now. Even though he could go crawling back to his dad he would rather sell himself and lose the judgement and the beatings. He didn’t mind his lifestyle. It was hard to mind anything with how often Anthony was high. This night was different though. Anthony didn’t want to stop. He wanted to see how far he could go. He was tired. He wanted to escape completely.

  
As he sat on his knees in that filthy street he realized that he must have escaped that life completely. He had been sick off of PCP before but that night he remembered feeling himself slipping too far down. He remembered feeling his breathing get faster and heavier before he blacked out. The john had passed out long before and wouldn’t notice that he was dying.

  
Anthony hugged himself with his arms as his breathing turned into quick pants and tears came to his eyes. He knew what he was going to remember next. He was going to remember the moment he died.

  
The sensation of leaving his body had been terrifying and he could recall a light above and a light below. As he had started to reach upwards the gentle white glow above suddenly disappeared and he fell into the red glow below. As he fell he was burning and changing until he hit the ground in this new reality. He had felt his body tearing and morphing. He had felt bones snap and organs shift. Then he blacked out until he woke up here.  
He remained in the same position with his eyes shut and muttering strange little prayers until a voice interrupted him.

  
“Get out of my way you jackass,” sniped a high girlish voice.

  
Anthony looked up at a small feline form that stood over him on the sidewalk. He stuttered out “W-what?”

  
The cat-woman above him sighed and repeated “You’re in the way. Are you stupid or something?” She rolled her eyes and adjusted her grip on the bags of groceries in her paws. Anthony looked at the strange form in front of him. She was about half his current size. She had creamy white fur with dark seal point markings like a Siamese cat. She was wearing a short skirt and some sort of cropped shirt. She had on tights that left her paw pads exposed. There was extra fluff on her head reminiscent of a short hair cut and her eyes were a pretty blue color. She also had the bitchiest look on her face. Anthony decided he wasn’t going to take shit from her right now.

  
Anthony crawled (he didn’t want to try figuring out his legs in front of some asshole stranger) to sit against the wall of the building nearest to him and whispered “Bitch.” He made sure she could hear it though.

  
She whirled and hissed “What did you just say to me?” She dropped the bags and loomed over him.

  
Anthony glared up at her and with all the pettiness he could muster replied “I’m having the worst moment of my life and I called you a bitch.” He didn’t know what he expected her to do and at this point he figured that it could not get any worse. He was flabbergasted when she burst into laughter.

  
She was bent over double after a minute and between gasps she blurted out “I’ve…hehe…definitely been….wheeze…called worse.” She straightened herself and grinned at Anthony. “I saw you down the street and I figured you for a spineless loser. You looked real sad all bent over and shit. But you just fell and yet you managed to stand up for yourself.” Her grin widened and she crouched down and looked at Anthony. “You’re not having the worst moment of your life by the way. In case you haven’t figured it out, you’re dead.”

  
Anthony rolled his eyes. “Yeah I got that, toots.” He shuddered and sighed “I remember enough to know that.” He adjusted his sleeves and forced out the question “Am I…is this…”

  
The cat-woman interrupted him. “You’re in hell. You’re in hell, and you’re new, and you seem like you can keep your shit together.” She looked him up and down. “Plus, you look like you could clean up good. What’s your name?”

  
“Uh…Anthony. It’s Anthony.”

  
“Nice to meet ‘cha Tony. I’m Tess.” She straightened up and gave him another once over. “Come with me Tony. Hell isn’t kind and I’m not planning on doing you a favor for free. I’m technically helping my boss recruit new people and if she likes you she’ll set you up real good.” She bent over to pick up her bags as she continued “Trust me you don’t want to be stuck out here if you can help it. I’ll get you a place to stay if you promise to audition with Bea this week.”

  
Anthony just gaped at her. He wasn’t entirely sure what was going on but he wasn’t naïve enough to just trust some stranger.

  
“Audition with Bea?” He smirked “Is that code for something?”

  
Tess laughed. “It’s good that you’re suspicious.” She shook her head. “It’s nothing like that. She needs dancers, bartenders, and body guards. You’re pretty enough for the first two and she doesn’t mind training people.” She shifted the grocery bags in her arms. “Help me carry these and I’ll make you dinner. It’s been a slow week for new souls in this area so I’m not offering just to help you out.” Tess gripped the bags a bit harder and an edge came into her voice that Anthony didn’t notice. “Beatrix keeps her employees on a tight leash but she pays well and doesn’t pay too much attention to you if you keep your head down.” She sighed. Tess knew what she was leaving out about her employer. Maybe Tony would be able to withstand Beatrix’s employment. Maybe Beatrix would keep him around if he was useful enough. Maybe.

  
Anthony was staring at the ground impassively and seemingly ignoring the cat. Tess knew he wasn’t going to be an easy sell even though he had just fallen. She shifted from paw to paw and decided to invest just a bit of time and energy into the spider.  
“Look Tony. If you want to try your luck for the next few days you can. If you go towards the billboard that says Blue Hive Club you’ll find my office on the top floor of that club. My offer will be on the table for the next few days.” With that, Tess reached into her pocket, pulled out a business card that she dropped in front of Anthony and walked away. She needed to get home and cook dinner. She had things to do and while the sinner in front of her was clearly a catch she had found just enough newbies this week to satisfy her boss. He would have been a nice addition though.

  
Tess had a knack for recognizing talent and what sinners would be tempted by. Tony seemed like the type who would like the attention he might get at a club. She hurried away as her thoughts turned to tomorrow’s meeting. It would have been really nice to add someone that pretty to the audition list. The only people on the list were those who were new and hadn’t heard of Miss Beatrix or those demons desperate enough to try their luck with the feared demon. The latter group were usually either washed up or so tired of their current situations that they didn’t care what could happen to them.

  
Anthony glared after her and flipped her off. He did tuck the business card into a pocket though. He finally stood up and brushed himself off. He had to lean against the wall to balance as he adjusted to the double jointed knees. He was starting to get the hang of them and managed to take a few shaky steps without the wall. He decided he needed to find somewhere to get some water to wash the taste of bile out of his mouth. He spat in the gutter and began moving forward.


End file.
